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They’re falling. Falling pretty fucking fast now.
Ladybug looks up, gasping for breath. The wind is screaming in her ears and she can’t feel anything. Nothing but Chat Noir’s firm grip around her wrists. He’s clinging onto her, and she meets his eyes for a minute, and she feels some sort of thud in her stomach. He’s looking at her like he always does, like maybe if he holds her in his sights for long enough she’ll lean into him. Like they’ll absorb each other and not be here, but still together.
And they are together, just not in the most ideal circumstances.
She tightens her hold on his wrists, and squeezes her eyes shut. Her face is numb, and she swallows hard.
“How far up do you think we are, my lady?” Cat Noir calls over the cold. Ladybug opens her eyes, looking at him. She hears a faint beep from her earrings, and bites back a reaction. She focuses on Cat Noir, his face and eyes being her center. His slitted pupils thin, but they grow a bit when she locks eyes with him. His hairs blown directly up, and she can see his ears poke out. It’s strange, seeing them. He has two studs in, and she smiles a bit. If they survive this, maybe she should buy him some cat earrings. Maybe she could make them.
“I don’t know,” She calls back. She chances a look down, and feels cold. She hated ShadowMoth, perhaps more than ever. He never played fair, and now here they were, miles above the Eiffel Tower, hurtling towards the ground. They hadn’t even won, falling off the platform the villain had been flying upon. The air had been thinner up there, causing them to stumble and perform clumsier than usual. And now…
She looked back up at Chat Noir, who hadn’t moved his gaze from her. Another beep from her earrings. She did her best to suck in a breath.
“I’m about to detransform,” She yells.
“Me too,” He shouted back. He glanced around, and then back at her. There was something in his eyes, a longing sort of stare, like he was just within reach of something, but he couldn’t do more than brush his fingertips over it, not fully grasping. She felt his claws dig a little into her wrists, but said nothing.
“I’ll…..I’ll look away!” He exclaimed. She smiled.
“I’m sorry,” She chokes out. He seems taken aback by this response, and his eyebrows knit together.
“You know I’d never betray your trust like that my lady,” He says slowly. “I understand you don’t want me to know, I’m not-”
“That’s not what I meant!” She half laughs, squeezing her eyes shut again. They’re starting to get out of all the cloud banks, and soon they’ll only be miles off the ground. Airplane height or so. What’s even going to happen to them? Maybe she could hook her yo-yo around the top of the tower and swing them to safety? But she’s about to detransform. Maybe they’ll be impaled on impact, or splatted onto the ground of Paris.
Gross. She shakes her head.
“I…I meant that I’m sorry for….oh I don’t know!” She opens her eyes again, not wanting to see Chat’s face but still looking. He has his mouth slightly open, and confusion spelled boldly in all caps on his face. But she keeps going.
“I’m sorry for everything. I’m sorry for not telling you everything I should have. I’m sorry I did nothing when you felt replaced. I’m sorry I can’t love you back. I’m sorry….I’m sorry I haven’t been a real best friend,” She swallows hard. “When you were still mine.”
He’s still looking at her, and his expression softens. He gets a thin smile on his lips, but looks anything but happy.
“Do you really think this is it for us?”
She levels with him as they fall through another layer of clouds. Another beep from her earrings. She’s losing time. She’s losing her fucking mind.
“I don’t know.” She responds finally. “But I love you.”
He responds by pulling her in closer, reaching up further by her elbows and knocking his forehead against hers. He does so harder than probably intended, and the blunt knock feels good against her head, setting her straight as the wind continues to rush past them.
“I’m sorry too,” He says quieter, and she strains to listen to him. “I haven’t really told you but,” He draws in a shaky breath. “I have never, ever in my life felt the way you make me feel when we are together. Even if we’re not fighting or-or we’re just. Sitting on the roofs, I-” He blinks hard, a few tears shooting upwards as he looks at her, so softly she could choke.
“I love you too. You are my best friend, and I should’ve told you everyday. But I didn’t. All of this is…is everything to me. I just-”
He lets out a hard breath, rubbing his eye on his shoulder.
“I can’t put it all into words, I’m sorry.”
“No,” She says quickly, tightening her grip on his arms. “I get it. I know what you’re trying to say. I..we….we should’ve done more together. I loved seeing that movie with you. Sorry for talking so loud during it.”
He laughs, loud and clear and she feels like the wind is knocked out of her. He’s here. He’s here and he always fucking has been. Her best friend. Her partner. Her Chat Noir.
He meets her eyes again, something unplaceable in them. She opens her mouth, ready to speak again, when a final beep sounds in her ears. Her stomach plummets, and Chat Noir’s eyes go big.
“I’m not looking!” He calls, shutting his eyes tight and forcing his head down. She feels the transformation undo, washing over her like she’s been dipped into water, hot and then freezing. She shudders, and in a moment of pure adrenaline and irrationality and I-don’t-want-to-die-like-this, she grabs his face and yanks it up.
His eyes go even bigger, and his mouth hangs open. Tikki is somewhere behind her, she can hear her little voice singing above the screaming of the wind, but she keeps her eyes on Chat. He grips her arms even tighter,and looks like he can’t even breathe.
“Hi,” She says, probably inaudible over the wind.
“It’s you,” Is all he gasps out. “It’s always been you.”
“Can I add ‘being Marinette Dupen-Cheng’ to my list of ‘I’m sorry’s’?”
“No,” He bites out. “No, no no no, fucking never,” He breathes heavy, and then glances at his ring. He looks back up at her, and in a flash, green slitted eyes are gone, and huge, black pupils ringed with green are the ones locked with hers.
“Oh my god,” She breathes out, barely able to use any of her voice.
“Oh my god.”
“Hi.” Adrien smiles back at her. Adrien. Adrien fucking Agreste. She feels sick. And stupid. And happy. And regret she didn’t have them do this sooner.
Fuck. Fuck! All this time, wasted. All this time was spent agonizing over speaking simple sentences to the person who was always hers. Always belonged to her in some weird, inexplicable way.
She feels tears puddling in her eyes, and he stiffens seeing them slip out.
“I’m sorry,” He shouts. “I’m sorry about this, I, are you happy? Is this okay?”
She giggles. And laughs. She laughs as hard as she can, choking and gasping, as she cries her goddamn eyes out and laughs until her chest hurts. She peeks her eyes open to see Adrien’s confused once more, but perfect fucking awesome face. She doesn’t even know how to feel right now. How do you place this? God. This is so ridiculous. And awesome. A wave sweeps over her as she looks at him.
She reaches in further, catching his head and weaving her fingers into his hair and pulling him in as close as she can. He latches his arms onto her shoulders, with a feeling like he would never let go no matter who tried to make him. She buries her head into his shoulder. She can’t even speak. She can hardly breathe but it doesn’t even fucking matter. None of this matters. The fact that they’re getting closer and Paris is below them starting to come into better detail and they’re so screwed they’re so screwed they’re so screwed their so fucking screwed.
Because it’s him.
Rena Rogue saves the day. She always has, in some way. She’s always been there for Marinette. For Ladybug. For whoever she is. Carapace is there too. She wonders, briefly, if Adrien feels that same feeling wash over him.
Alya holds her for a bit, clutching her tightly as they sit on the roof of some dumb building. She can’t even think clearly. She just smiles, and rocks back and forth as Alya half-cries and half-yells at her. She switches up constantly between lecturing her and soothing her.
She just leans in, and let's Alya take control on this one. Marinette and Ladybug are checked out for the year.
They find each other again. They always do. She sits atop the Eiffel Tower, as high up as she can sit comfortably. He finds her, and she finds him. Her knees are pulled up to her chest, and she hears the clang of metal as he lands beside her. She doesn’t react at first, letting him shift into their familiarity next to her. It’s always been this way, and it always will.
Always always always.
“Hi.”
She looks over to him, the side of her head resting on her arms, and he looks at her, sheepishly. His ears pulled back, and a faint blush along his face. Maybe that’s the windburn, though. He squats beside her, as if he’s not sure if he should launch himself onto her or stay thirty feet away.
She doesn’t speak, just reaches out her hand and cups his face, running her thumb over the side and the slight edge of his mask. He melts instantly, and leans over to wrap his arms around her. She burrows into him, her arms snaking up and her hands falling at the base of his neck. She reaches into the hair there, tangling her fingers into it. She sighs.
He takes a deep breath.
She wants to shout “I Love You” from where they sit, yell it to the whole city of Paris and scream it until her chest hurts again and her voice is raw and everything aches, which it all already does.
She settles for repeating it as much as she can, as close to his little studded ears as she can through his shaggy little head. The real ears, the ones that have absorbed and probably ran over every single little word or noise she’s even let out. Everything. Everything.
She really does owe him earrings now.